Employers across Ohio and the country are expected to hire more paid interns and college graduates this year as economic uncertainty eases, consumer spending picks up and the economy continues to show signs of recovery, according to various studies and experts.

Area universities have seen double-digit increases in both the number of jobs posted and companies coming to campus to meet students. Employers have also signaled they intend to hire more paid interns this year, and online postings for new intern opportunities have skyrocketed.

“There are many signs of hope for this year’s graduating class,” said Jason Eckert, director of career services at the University of Dayton.

The recession and its aftermath has been particularly harsh on young people. College graduates have faced one of the toughest job markets in decades, and nearly 9 percent of recent graduates are unemployed, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, young people have been forced to compete for open entry-level positions with older workers with more experience who were laid off when the economy soured. High unemployment made it difficult for new graduates to find work linked to their fields of study.

But unemployment continues to drop, and employers are expected to hire about 10.2 percent more new college graduates this summer, compared to 2011, according to a March survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Additionally, a report released last fall by the Career Services and Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University similarly found that hiring of graduates with bachelor’s degrees is expected to increase by 7 percent this year.

Hiring up locally

Employers are more optimistic now about the college labor market than any time since 2007, and this has led employers to increase their hiring targets, the report said.

Despite this, employer labor demands will fall short of the supply of graduating students.

Smaller companies are often hiring because they are expanding and creating new positions, while larger companies are starting to fill positions that have sat vacant for some time, the report said. Baby boomers are finally beginning to retire, and some employers can no longer delay filling those positions.

“Some employers are gearing up hiring younger people in preparation of retirements we know are coming down the road,” Eckert said.

Locally, employers are stepping up efforts to connect with college students who are entering the labor force.

Nearly 33 percent more organizations participated in UD’s spring career and graduate school fair. Wright State University’s recruiting days had 20 percent more companies — and even a waiting list for events aimed at business and science, math, science and technology majors.

Miami University’s career fair had the second highest number of participating employers ever, with 150 companies, according to Cathy Moore, associate director of career services.

Sinclair Community College has already seen a 16 percent bump in jobs posted by employers compared to last year, and there are still three months left in this year’s count. Since last July, 1,850 positions have been posted, Sinclair reports.

Kelli Ficke, 22, who will graduate from UD in May with a business degree with a major in marketing and a minor in communications, said she accepted a job offer in March from Advantage Sales and Marketing, which has an office in Cincinnati.

Ficke said she was relieved to find a job because she knows the labor market is very competitive, and she did not hear back from many of the employers whom she submitted applications to online.

Ficke said she believes her work as a peer adviser at UD’s business school must have looked good to Advantage, but she said the experience she gained last summer from working as a paid intern in the advertising department at Kroger also helped her land the job.

“I think I got placed in Cincinnati because of my Kroger experience,” she said. “I will be taking sales data and determine what kind of sales promotions and suggestions we can make to (clients).”

As Ficke can attest, internships are a way for students to receive real-world experience and on-the-job training, and the skills they learn will be a marketable asset during the job hunt, career advisers said.

The ‘new interview’

“Studies show that businesses are certainly more likely to hire a person who has been working in that environment,” said Kim Norris, spokeswoman with the Ohio Board of Regents. “Exposure to the business community, the connections that you make through internships and the learning that is gained is very important.”

The number of internship opportunities posted on internships.com so far this year was five times higher as the amount posted during the same period in 2011, according to the website.

There are about 400 current internship opportunities in Ohio posted on the website, and there are about 4,000 opportunities when student jobs and entry-level positions are included in the count.

Companies across the country plan to hire about 8.5 percent more interns this year, and nearly all of the employers said the positions will be paid, according to a National Association of Colleges and Employers’ survey of about 280 of its members.

College students who graduated last year and participated in a paid internship were more likely than their peers without such experience to receive a job offer, obtain employment by the time they graduated and earn a higher starting salary, according to the association’s study released in October.

It has always been a trend for companies to hire students as interns before taking them on as full-time employees, said Charlene Walker, Wright State’s associate director of career services.

“But I would say that it’s being implemented or used by more employers than very before,” she said.

Yair Riemer, vice president of marketing for internships.com, said the value of internships has never been higher, because employers view the positions as a way to identify job candidates and measure their abilities.

Basically “internships are essentially the ‘new interview,’ ” he said. “Employers are using internships to ‘test-drive talent,’ and build a long term successful employee base.”

Interest in internships has blossomed, and there are about 8,000 internship opportunities for colleges and universities across southwest Ohio, said Sean Creighton, executive director of the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education.

“Students benefit from the opportunity to gain firsthand experience and on-the-job training in a career field,” he said. “Employers of all sizes and industries benefit from access to smart, energetic and affordable talent — students who are eager to learn.”

Students who interned in Dayton during college were twice as likely to stay in the Dayton region after graduating, said Yvette Kelly-Fields, director of upDayton, a group dedicated to attracting and retaining young talent in the region.

“Internships are a key to keeping talent,” she said. “People who find things to do here in the summer are more likely to stay here when the graduate from college.”